Never Compromise
by sleep learning
Summary: In the moment of suspended silence, Daniel tells himself it’s the last time. 50 Sentences of Dan and Rorschach


1. He is as ambiguous as the black and white mask on his face. So much so, that Dan doesn't even know what he wants at first.

2. Rorschach never admitted to wanting anything.

3. "We apprehend wrong doers of society, the degenerates and depraved'' explains Night Owl. He wants to believe this is why they can't do what they are about to do.

4. Long strides take the cloaked figured down the quiet streets, blending into the filth of the city, and Daniel feels a pain in the marrow of his bones, because he wants to follow Rorschach into the dark.

5. Walking behind the Second Night owl, examining his costumed back, Rorschach see's a butterfly, he sees nice flowers.

6. "…no meaning save what we choose to impose", the mantra he kept to for so long, would momentarily be forgotten as he watched Daniel gaze back at him, his eyes an intensity almost unimaginable.

7. It's easier for Night Owl, because he can feel.

8. Between burning houses and capturing a serial killer, Rorschach can feel Dan's eyes, trapped behind his goggles, filled with the worst kind of yearning.

9. The ink is constantly changing shape, like the ageing lines of a face, and Dan is the only one who can make it slide upwards, like a jack-o-lantern, a mockery of a smile.

10. The boundaries were broken by a single leathered glove, unzipped pants and voices strained into distortion.

11. For three weeks they wouldn't speak, for three weeks Rorschach ached.

12. He couldn't understand at first, how each gentle stroke would be rejected, yet every hardened contact would be returned with feral lust and uncharacteristic passion.

13. He wanted to tear away the mask, see skin and bones and blood, but each time he reached, the possibility burned away his fingertips.

14. In the moment of suspended silence, Daniel tells himself it's the last time.

15. Two hands crush his hips and a nose is buried into his neck, for a brief few seconds the voices in his head stop, the ink freezers and his eyes open impossibly large and almost innocent.

16. Listening to Captain Carnage beg Night Owl to punish him, Rorschach grins in shifting black, before becoming mildly, then soon aggressively jealous.

17. Sometimes, the solution could be found in a punch to the jaw.

18. Blowing out candles, surrounded by family and friends, Daniel finds himself wondering how old Rorschach is, and how long it would take to sneak off, find him and fail at finding the answer.

19. The steel floor of the Airship takes away the residual heat of two naked bodies.

20. Night owl slides his leg into a shin, an elbow into the ribs. The final criminal detained, he smells blood and decay, and loses control for the second time that night.

21. Rorschach could be content to slide his hand over the muscles of Daniels back, as much as was to clench his fist and punch him in the gut.

22. He likes to pretend that it's the heart of winter that causes his hands to tremble, rather than admit that at this moment, he is beginning to loose control.

23. He often wonders why it was that only Rorschach's clothes managed to remain undamaged, or at least, still repairable.

24. In the dark, arms trapped by his side, he half heartedly struggles, and is rewarded with a hiss.

25. Every stunted sentence, shortened gruff word, has Dan obsessing over chapped lips and a strong jaw.

26. It's not like Daniel expected Rorschach to change, he didn't want that. But hearing him talk about existence being random, the meaning of oblivion and the despair begins to eat him up and he finds himself shutting him up any way possible.

27. There are moments when his fist is at Dan's neck but Rorschach can't let go. Dan will never mention it, because there are moments were its his hand he cant let go of either

28. It was too hard to tell if the marks came mostly from violent fists, yearning mouths, or possessive teeth.

29. They can be Night Owl and Rorschach, Daniel and Rorschach. They will never be Kovacs and anything.

30. Dan would often wake to Rorschach on the edge of his bed, silent and waiting.

31. Despite the costumes, the faces, the bodies and the beliefs, together they create symmetry, a completed design.

32. 1977, Night Owl reads the letter, declaring the passing of the Keen Act and a weight lifts off his shoulder, he can taste the freedom, the release from a heavy burden

33. Watching them all fight and debate, his costumed companions; the words 'retire' and 'normal lives' seep into his skin and for the first time since becoming Rorschach, he feels dirty.

34. "The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone." Daniel feels like it's him behind the morphing latex, seeing himself. Through Rorschach's eyes, he see's his own infidelity and betrayal.

35. It's not being a vigilante that bothers him, the law is insignificant. It's the cold hurt that for a few briefs years, he was part of a team, he was a part of Daniel.

36. A chance meeting and they find themselves pressed painfully close, struggling in the men's bathroom of a rundown coffee shop.

37. The distance between their faces is shortening, and Dan closes his eye to welcome what has haunted him since his retirement two years ago. The weight of another body is wrenched away from him as he hears "_Never compromise_" and the retreating of angry steps.

38. As he watches the rain outside try futilely to wash away the murder and prostitution of the streets, he feels unbearably hollow.

39. It's been a long time since they've talk, and they both look hesitantly across the table, like at any minute they'll meet on top of it

40. "Oh. Uh, yeah... yeah, those were great times, Rorschach. _Great_ times. Whatever happened to them?"

41. "You quit"

42. "Hey. Hey. If you don't mind, use the back stairs, all right?"

43. Daniel watches him leave, with eyes so much older, and a will so much weaker. It's been so long since he's felt such anguish, and the taste of his own betrayal rises in his throat.

44. He watches them in the diner, the carefree manner, the casual invitation. Under the table, his knuckles are white and behind his eyelids he sees symmetrical blood splatter.

45. Above him, she's young, beautiful, her mothers daughter. But Dan still wishes he could smell the rotting of the city, the grazing of stubble on cloth.

46. Beside a TV anchor, the mask is ripped off; revealing the second skin. Dan will replay it for hours to come, connecting and reconnecting with the new face and everything he believed about love.

47. On good days, he would rescue all of humanity for Daniel. On bad days, he wouldn't save anyone, not even a partner.

48. "You the sentimental type, Daniel? -- Brought you a souvenir."  
he looks at the faded photograph, and tells himself he isn't crying

49. Still in shock, Daniel can hear Rorschach screaming at Manhattan to kill him. "Do it, just do it!"…somehow, Dan feels like it him that's being pleaded with, to confess "just say it, just tell me"

50. Everything is snow and ice, and he wants to disappear amongst the white. He wants Rorschach to comeback. He wants the world to be destroyed.


End file.
